Perhaps you’ve always desired to enjoy your dream pilgrimage to Rome. You imagine yourself strolling through the Vatican Museums, pausing before each painting to reflect and pray.

Now thanks to the amazing new book Meditations on Vatican Art (Liguori Publications) by Mark Haydu, LC, STL, the international coordinator of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, we can all take a twenty-eight day retreat to Rome in the comfort of our own homes!

This book was published in November of 2013, but is again in the news this summer after having won several Catholic publishing awards. An overview of the book lets you see how this is not just another nice book of paintings, but instead a carefully crafted spiritual resource:

Meditations on Vatican Art allows you to deepen your relationship with God as you reflect on art from the Vatican collections and pray the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Fr. Mark Haydu, International Coordinator of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, serves as the spiritual guide for this exquisite collection of art, contemplation, and prayer. The book follows the four categories of the Ignatian Exercises: 1) Creation, 2) Sin, 3) Jesus Christ, and 4) Resurrection.

Each day of prayer includes:

Vatican Art image with a poetic overview and short descriptive background information about the art

Reflection on the art image and scripture passage

Concluding prayer

Reflective questions for the reader to ponder or use as writing prompts

Create your own retreat with these 28 days of prayer or feast on their beauty as time allows. A rich treasury of art and spirituality for all those seeking to grow in their experience of God.

A look inside the book gives us the sense of how this book can serve as an “armchair pilgrimage” for any Catholic who loves his faith, travel and art. I’ve had the pleasure of praying with this book for the past few months and would highly recommend it as both a tremendous spiritual resource and an art lesson from an incredibly knowledgeable resource. The accompanying VaticanArt.org contains sample pages, resources from the Vatican Art Gallery and video tours of beautiful art.

As a Catholic who loves her faith and a frequent adventurer who’s always up for a new journey, Lisa is a wife and mom, a writer, a speaker and an impassioned traveler. Visit her at LisaHendey.com to keep up with her comings and goings.